Pinheads

Jim Dollinger
Monday, March 16, 2009

Bill Lovejoy showed me the 29 pins when they first came out. Now Bill is a wonderful guy, no one nicer. Trouble is that he was clueless about how to sell autos. Tried to reason with him and warned that unless GM radically altered their marketing, his pins would end up in the trash as share would drop to twenty relatively soon.

Today, it matters not how much the feds pour into GM even though I would claim we are making relatively desirable products. The problem continues to be that we have the absolutely worst marketing of any retail business in the world and that is what is killing us. We don't support brands, don't offer products to fit brands. Instead we manufacture cars based on available plant utilization and/or architecture allowances. We don't support our dealers properly and have severed meaningful relationships with our clients over the years.

The answers are not that difficult. In fact, Return to Greatness would bring rapid and dramatic improvements. Under Wagoner the results don't change, just the excuses. He needs to go and soon. Then rational and executable ideas need to be implemented. Otherwise, even the Federal Reserve can't afford to continue backing GM since the downside is bigger than AIG.